Hop Hop Hop

Happy Passover/Easter everyone! I have been away from this for a long time, it seems. Now that I look back, I see I haven’t really written anything since last year. Lots of weaving spinning, and knitting – just not much writing. In any case, spring is springing, the birds are singing, and I feel the urge to get back to it. Here is a recap of the last 3 months.

January:

My month was consumed in readying items for a show in March. I am always amazed how much time it takes to prep items – pressing, tagging, pricing, etc. While I like to see my items find new homes, I find it very hard to select what to sell and for how much. In the end, most of what I selected was already

created, but I did have an orgy of sock knitting and spinning to help boost the variety and color of our offerings. Photographing handspun is a particular challenge since the colors can be quite vibrant and I find making the fibers look tidy in a loose skein quite challenging. My mannequin served as a display vehicle this time, but I was not totally satisfied with the result – a bit too informal for my taste. Next time, I am going to experiment with black fabric or whiteboard as backdrop.

 

February:

Once February arrived, the creating for the show was over and I was back at the loom in earnest. Early in the month we had an amazing-for-us snow dump. Eighteen inches is nothing back in Minnesota but here? Wow! It disrupted lots of plans but it was pretty and provided an excellent excuse for hot chocolate with marshmallows. I found myself enthralled with the idea of recreating the look on the loom.

I wound warp in bark and fir colors (dark green, various browns, and black). Building on a concept from a class I took in January from the great and wonderful Janet Dawson/Sue Willingham (Weaver’s Palette) duo, I took a standard twill pattern and started playing. Different wefts provided different snow effects. I chose a twill pattern and treadled it to create the peaks – varying the number of passes with each weft shot and the weight of the yarn. As you can see in the picture to the left, the original geometric pattern gave way to a more organic layering of shapes. 8/4 cotton flake created the heaviest “snowfall,” but I like the feel of the 8/2 cotton flake better. Sometimes it is hard to believe that a single tie-up and threading can produce such variable results. Isn’t weaving amazing?

March:

With our show in progress and our weekends devoted to demonstrating or other commitments, I hurled myself into various knitting projects. A baby blanket, baby sweater, bunny rabbit, and cozy cowl later, I felt ready to say good-bye to winter and hello to our Australian granddaughter. As I flew off for the other side of the world (and showing amazing restraint, I might add), I threw 2 knitting projects in my bag. But more on that (and some new weaving) next time.